Expanding your team isn’t the only option to scale your business. Here are 4 tactics for growing your business without growing your team.
Time Management
Calendar Jailbreak: 4 Strategies to Spend Less Time in Meetings
When you feel held captive by your calendar, it’s time to reevaluate. You can make your calendar work for you by adopting these 4 strategies.
3 Nonnegotiables for Every High Achiever
If we don’t make time for our nonnegotiables, they largely go untended. Here are 3 categories every high achiever needs to make time for.
How Constraints Help Us Achieve More
Constraints liberate and empower us to achieve more. Here are 3 ways constraints actually work in our favor.
The First Task Your EA Should Tackle
Handing off email management to your EA frees you up for high-leverage work. Here are 2 tactics to make this a smooth and successful process.
Why We Have a 6-Hour Workday
Constraints around the workday contribute to success. Here is what we’ve learned having a 6-hour workday—and why we’re sticking with it.
5 Reasons You Need to Get Better at Saying No
I have a hard time saying “no.” Perhaps you do, too. I think it is more common than we think, especially for those who are empathetic or nurturing. Here are five reasons why we must get better.
4 of Today’s Best Content Management Apps
Calendars are the lifeblood of business operations. They always have been and always will be. One of the most common observations of successful businesses (and individuals) is they are very highly organized and have a consistent procedure. A 2017 study by PMI found that only 60% of projects actually meet their goals. The primary cause […]
Thank God It’s… Thursday?
The best and most creative thinking and problem-solving can only take place during uninterrupted periods of time. You know it and so do your colleagues. Which is why your company wants to give everyone time one day a week—let’s say Thursday—to work alone. Easier said than done. It is difficult to control the array of […]
The Power of Productive Thinking
Tim Ferriss’s 4-Hour Workweek is an enormously popular book, selling more than 1.35 million copies since its 2007 release. But that doesn’t mean its message on how to “escape the 9-5, live anywhere, and join the new rich” sinks in right away. While Daniel Ndukwu, founder and CEO of software company Kyleads, was an early […]
The Do’s and Don’ts of Goal Sharing
I’ve always done my best to keep up with the latest research in goal achievement. I not only want to learn from it myself, I also want to distill the lessons for fellow leaders. But the tricky thing about science is that it often causes us to reevaluate our assumptions. That reevaluation can be uncomfortable, […]
Why You Get Distracted at Work
It’s hard to maintain your focus in an office. With so many meetings to attend, drop-ins by coworkers, calls, emails, and countless other interruptions, it can seem like a miracle that anything ever gets done. But do you know who the biggest culprit often is when it comes to sabotaging your productivity with distractions? Look […]
The Problem with Whack-a-Mole Productivity
When I started my career, I quickly discovered that I had more to do than I could get done in a forty-hour workweek. So, I worked more hours. I got to the office at 5:00 a.m. and usually didn’t leave until 6:00 p.m. I often worked on Saturday mornings and Sunday evenings, too. It wasn’t […]
Five Consequences of a Life Out of Balance
If you are working more than fifty-five hours a week, you are working too much. Here is what you are putting to risk.
What’s Your Productivity Personality “Type”?
Low engagement and productivity are serious problems for organizations. As I mentioned Monday, Gallup’s numbers show only a third of workers are engaged on the job. The office is actually the last place most people want to be when they need to be productive and complete a task. What about you?
The Benefit of Pairing Digital and Analog to Manage Your Day
Since we announced the Full Focus Planner™ a few months ago, I’ve lost track of how many people have asked me about my plans for task and calendar management. Am I planning on going full analog? It’s an important question. When it comes to planning our time, reviewing our goals, and tracking our tasks, we […]
Why I Decided to Publish a Paper Planner
A few years ago, I read David Sax’s book, The Revenge of Analog. The premise? After years of being pushed aside by digital solutions, analog applications have been making a surprising comeback. That resonated with my own experience. Most of my audience knows me as a techie. But I was in the book business for […]
Introducing the Full Focus Planner
Tell me if this sounds familiar: You’ve got big goals for the year. Maybe for your career, your health, your family, and the like. But it’s easy to lose visibility in the whirlwind of daily life. You’re productive, no question. Sometimes you’re flying faster than a tornado. But to what end? It’s like there’s no […]
Why You Should Never Start With Your Most Difficult Task
Years ago, I heard a motivational speaker encourage his audience to “eat that frog.” The line has a long history. And it makes sense: Stop procrastinating and just do the thing you fear. Once you do that, everything else is easy. While that may be helpful in overcoming procrastination, it’s exactly backwards for big goals […]
Why It Pays to Invest in Greater Productivity
We all have things we do really well. In our businesses, these are usually the tasks that drive revenue. But if you’re like most entrepreneurs and executives, you probably only spend 20 percent of your time on these tasks. The rest goes to solving other people’s problems, wading through oceans of email, attending inefficient meetings, […]
True Confessions of a Productivity Geek
I’ve been a serious student of productivity for a couple decades now. As the primary income earner in a family of seven, I had to be. When I first started in business, I lived in a constant state of feeling overwhelmed. Work took my best, and I struggled to find time for my family and […]
Are You Ready to Join the Productivity Revolution?
The way we’re doing productivity isn’t working. I hear stories and regrets that confirm it whenever I talk with entrepreneurs, executives, and other busy leaders. The old methods are no match for all the interruptions and distractions of today’s environment. Thankfully, there’s a new, emerging science of productivity—and you’re invited to listen to eight of […]
8 Reasons You’re Exhausted, Overwhelmed, and Unproductive
I don’t have to go to the doctor very often. But when I do go, I notice they follow the same routine. It only takes a few minutes, but they start by checking my weight, pulse, blood pressure, and other vitals. The idea is to get a quick read on my overall health. Getting a […]
Dial Back the Crazy by Spring Cleaning Your Calendar
It’s that time of year, right? Spring cleaning. It’s an annual tradition that goes back forever. And most of us get a piece of the action. Seven in ten Americans participate every year. I’ve seen dozens of spring cleaning checklists, tips, and shortcuts. But there’s one thing most of these lists miss, and it’s usually […]